Press Briefing by Houmayoun Jareer, Head of the Cyprus Group Delegation

UN Talks on Afghanistan
Bonn,
November/December 2001

Königswinter, 30
November 2001

PRESS
BRIEFING BY HOUMAYOUN JAREER, HEAD OF THE CYPRUS GROUP DELEGATION

Following is a near-verbatim
transcript of the English interpretation of today's briefing at 1 p.m. Bonn time
by
Mr Houmayoun Jareer, Head of the Cyprus group delegation:

In the name of God, the
almighty, I am very happy to be here with you again and I would like to give you
some information about the conference, which we are taking part in, and to give
you our position towards the problems which are discussed. We are sure that this
conference will end soon, with resolutions, which will be to the benefit of the
Afghan nation.

As far as the group of the
Cyprus process is concerned, we have done our utmost, and very sincerely, to
achieve results, which would serve the national interests of the Afghan people.
Until now we had all bilateral and trilateral discussions with the groups, and
today there was a meeting of the group of eight, two representatives of each of
the groups here, to start to gather the results of the bilateral discussions and
to bring them on a common denominator, and we hope that very soon we will have
the draft of the agreement, which will be passed here in these
discussions.

This group of eight started
its work this morning at 10 a.m. and continued until 12, and my impression is
that the progress is very positive and you will have the results by tomorrow.
The committee will continue its work today in the afternoon and will bring the
points, which are agreed upon, to their definitive text. I can mention to you
specifically that in regard of the agenda, which was proposed by the United
Nations, all the groups agreed to it.

When we come to the details,
today in discussion we understood that there are still some different ideas
about the details and we are working now to bring these details towards a common
denominator, and we hope that very soon we will have a definitive agreement,
which our people are hoping to hear very soon.

I can assure you that all
the participant groups are sincerely, and very hard, trying to resolve the
differences and come to a result, which would be in the national interest of
Afghanistan and for the benefit of our people.

Now I am at your disposal,
if there are any questions, I would be happy to answer them.

Question: There
are three questions: first, is there agreement on the number of members of the
Supreme Council, and if so how many? Second, what is the number of the members
of the interim administration? Third, the dignitary named Haji Qadir has left
already the conference, has he left the conference because of differences only
among their group, or because of differences with all groups?

Answer: In regard of
the number of member of these organs, it is true that there have been
differences in the viewpoints, but we tried in these days to bring the views
closer to each other, and we have reached an agreement but I would request your
allowance not to be pushed to now give any information, which is going to be
given to you tomorrow together with all groups.

Haji Qadir is one of the
very important personalities in Afghanistan. He is the leader of the Shura, of
the council, of the eastern provinces of Afghanistan, and, contrary to what you
said, he is not a member of the Rome group, but a member of the Islamic
Alliance. He has left the conference not because of differences between himself
and other groups; other groups had good contacts and relations with him. The
reason why he left the conference we don't know in detail, it might be some
difficulties between the group of the Islamic Alliance, but as much as I can
tell you, Haji Qadir is accepting the spirit of this conference, and he told me
personally when he was leaving the conference, that he would agree and support
all that was decided by this conference.

Question: I
understood that there is an agreement already that the former King Zahir Shah
would be the leader of the interim administration. But do you think that the
youth in Afghanistan have any idea what role the King can play for the future of
Afghanistan, because he's over 80, if I understand very well.

Answer: To answer
your question I would say that there is no previous decision, or decision which
was taken previous to this conference about any matter. And the United Nations
has called this conference and given the Afghans the opportunity to discuss all
the matters among each other, and the results you will hear tomorrow. So there
is no point in stressing the rumours.

Question: Two
questions: You told us that all the four groups agree on the UN agenda but there
are still some differences on details. Could you please give us some hint about
these details, which are the points still being discussed. Second Question:
we've been under the impression here that maybe the two major delegations, the
Rome group and the United Front, were leading the talks on the Petersberg, and
that maybe the two other delegations were under pressure to give up ground in
order to satisfy the two major players. Could you comment on this?

Answer: With regard
to your first question, as I mentioned earlier, on the principle of establishing
a Supreme Council and an interim administration there is agreement between all
the group. But in the details there are differences, for example as I mentioned
also in answering the earlier question, there are differences in the composition
and the numbers which will be participated either in Supreme Council or in the
interim administration. And also, one other major point, which is under
discussion, is the question of the security in Kabul. Every group has its own
position and we are trying, as I mentioned - the impression from this group of
eight session is that we can breach these differences and come to an agreement
so that you can hear the results of this tomorrow.

In regard to your second
question, it is not so that here are important and not important or less
important groups, but we are all four groups here on equal footing by the
invitation of the United Nations and every one of the groups has only one vote
by the last agreement so we are as equal as others are in this gathering. The
second thing is that all the groups who participated here tried earnestly to
reach an agreement in the bilateral context. As the group of Cyprus has good
contact with members of different groups, we had a constructive role, a very
active role, in bridging the differences between the different groups and we
were successful in that point and our role here was an active and constructive
one.

Question: (Start
inaudible) … like to see for Kabul? A UN force, a mixed western international
force or an Afghan force?

Answer: Your question
is very important because as far as Cyprus is concerned, we think that the
security of Kabul is one of the most important points which have to be resolved
in this conference. The four groups agree on the basis, on this principle, that
the security of Kabul shall be left (… break in tape …).

The principle is agreed by
all groups. There were discussions about the mechanism how to reach this goal,
and in these discussions we could get closer so that we hope by tomorrow you
will have the result of that as well.

Question: (Start
inaudible): … international force or do you want an Arab or Islamic force, as
the Cyprus group, please?

Answer: If you want
to know exactly the opinion of the Cyprus Group, we think that United Nations
must decide about a security force for Kabul.

Question: First
of all, why don't you change your names - you are here Cyprus Group, Rome Group
and so on, and this wouldn't give a good impression for the Afghan nation once
they want to vote for this or the other group. Why you don't put your names, the
way of the political issue? The second question is that Haji Qadir has left the
meeting because he thought that the Pashtuns are not represented enough in this
conference, whereas there are so many members, eight or nine members they said,
in the Rome group from the Pashtuns, there are Pashtun members in the group from
Peshawar, there are also Pashtuns I would say in your group, there are also four
Pashtuns in the Northern Alliance group. So why he felt discomfort with this
composition and left the meeting?

Answer: Our answer is
that first of all it is too late now to change our name, and the second question
is - that is that gentleman's opinion, and if someone is going to answer it, it
is Haji Qadir and not us.

Question: Mr
Jareer, would you agree in continuing conversations in Kabul as Mr Qanooni
proposed and deal the security question, in case you want to reach an agreement
in Bonn.

Answer: As I
mentioned earlier, for us the security of Kabul is very important, is the basic
issue, which we shall agree upon here in Bonn.

My impression from today's
session of the group of eight, eight people I mean, is that we are very close to
reaching an agreement on that issue.

Question: Mr
Jareer, did you speak in the conference about the war which the United States is
leading in Afghanistan, this is the first question? And the second, there is
some impression that the United States is using this conference to continue the
war against terrorists and probably to attack Iraq very soon.

Answer: There is no
pressure whatsoever in this conference. We are Afghans gathered here together to
find a solution or the situation in Afghanistan. How we can resolve the next
future period of our country. And we only discuss the matters which concern this
issue. That is forming an interim administration and bringing about a good
security possibility for the people in order to put them in a position to be
able to decide freely about their future, for self determination and future.
About the second part of your question that America is going to use this
conference for fulfilling other purposes, I can tell you, that I disagree with
you totally. This is a conference about Afghanistan and it has nothing to do
with whatever else America wants to do. This is a conference about Afghanistan.

Question: The
question was that you are talking only about the security of Kabul, and what
would happen to the security of other towns in Afghanistan? Would it be looked
after by the United Nations, or would this group of four decide about that as
well?

Answer: This will be
the last question which I would answer because there is another press conference
afterwards. So, as far as Cyprus Process is concerned, we are not only worried
about the security of Kabul but also worried about the security of other parts
of Afghanistan as well. Although we have no exact information about what has
happened recently in Mazar-i-Sharif, we condemn these sort of things which
happen. The same way we don't agree with what happened in (Samangan) and also in
Kunduz, and also the situation in the eastern part of Afghanistan is not quite
satisfactory and in the same way in Kandahar also there are some problems in
this way, but we think that once this Interim Administration, which would be
acceptable to all Afghan people, can take office in Kabul, then they can - with
the help of the United Nations - can look after security in other parts of the
country as well. And we hope that soon we can be in a position that Afghanistan
is safe and peaceful. Thank you.